Through it all, Obama was the steady captain of the ship,
his top aides say, a role the president has played since the early days of the
2008 presidential campaign.

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The president, through his long campaign and his first 14
months in office, has shown few glimpses into his inner decision-making
process, but the image he presents to the country and to the world is one of a
calm and steady leader who refuses to get bogged down in day-to-day skirmishes.

While Obama is famous for his "fired up"
campaign-style speeches, his daily frustrations are rarely evident because the
president is always thinking about the bigger picture, aides say.

"He's able to swim past that frustration and focus on
the larger view," said press secretary Robert Gibbs.

And it all started on the campaign trail, aides say.

After an early win in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, Obama appeared
poised to repeat himself in New Hampshire. But after losing to then-rival Hillary
Rodham Clinton, it was Obama who insisted the loss would benefit his team in
the long run.

"I remember distinctly the next morning him telling a
group of donors that he thought in the end, New Hampshire would be a good
thing," Gibbs said.

Gibbs and other Democrats think Obama took that same
approach to the protracted, intensely vitriolic healthcare debate that ended in
victory last week.

In a sense, Gibbs said, Obama focuses on the larger view and
long-term picture while delegating his anger or outrage over daily partisan and
pundit attacks to Gibbs or White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and others.

"I'm not as good at compartmentalizing it as him,"
Gibbs told The Hill. "None of us are."

What's more, Obama is the calming presence who keeps his
staff focused, a noticeably more relaxed Gibbs said in an interview in his West
Wing office. With his feet on his desk, Gibbs noted it is helpful during heady
times "when you see the leader of the operation is not freaked out."

One senior administration official said Obama's calm during
critical and troubled times can be jarring to a West Wing that is living and
dying by the minutia of daily Washington warfare. Even to a veteran political
soldier like Emanuel.

"I remember early on, one time when it was bad, Rahm
said to me, 'Why's [Obama] so calm?'" the official said. "In some
ways, it's unnervingly so."

To be sure, Obama ratcheted up his rhetorical fire at
Republicans as the debate raged on, and in recent television interviews, he
certainly appeared to wear a face of frustration. And the president came under
criticism from the White House press corps for almost completely avoiding press
conferences when the debate was at its hottest.

But by and large, Obama appeared neither too high nor too
low even as his poll numbers and signature domestic agenda item were sinking.

What Democrats do best is worry. And there was no shortage
of allies coming to Obama as the healthcare debate dragged on, warning him that
it was bad for his administration, bad for the party and bad for his poll
numbers, Gibbs said.

"Most of it comes from the Hill," Gibbs
acknowledged. "Usually those responses would be met by the president
telling someone's [health insurance] story."

Ross Baker, an expert on the presidency and a political
science professor at Rutgers University, said that what is telling about
Obama's style is that despite hours of persuading lawmakers, there were no
reports of intimidation or political threats.

"I have not heard of anybody who really felt they were
being coerced," Baker said.

By contrast, during the reign of former Republican Majority
Leader Tom DeLay in the early days of the George W. Bush administration, Republican
lawmakers "really walked out of those DeLay sessions feeling like they'd
been worked over by an experienced police interrogator."

Baker said that might well be the role that Emanuel is
playing, but if the famously firey tempered chief of staff is playing bad cop,
then it is all the more easy for Obama to play good cop.

"Obama's not just the good cop, he's a good chief of
police," Baker said.

Gibbs conceded that Obama is not immune to natural anger or
frustration when his opponents fire away, but even in those moments, Obama is
able to take a longer view of the situation.

"I think he realizes there's a lot of us to worry about
the short view," Gibbs said.

Even so, Gibbs said Obama did bristle in the days leading up
to the healthcare vote when reports began to emerge about infighting in the
White House and the role Emanuel was playing.

"He did not like that stuff," Gibbs said.

The president, Gibbs said, is a big believer that the team
sails as a whole to "a new world or all rest comfortably together on the
bottom of the ocean floor."

But Baker said while Obama "certainly comes across as
Cool Hand Luke," the president, who admits to still struggling with a
cigarette addiction, could very well be a picture of stress behind closed
doors.